Topic: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

In case anyone was wondering, this was generally used as the go-to thread to discuss the podcast, SlidersCast at www.sliderscast.com -- Man, some good memories here. Ironically enough, the message board went kablooey right around the time things went off the rails for us. I had to deal with a few illnesses, a death in the family, and during all that, work was busier than it had been all year. I was slammed.

Also working against us was the fact that we had an episode recorded, the now released episode 25. We had a special guest on that episode, the very cool Ian McDuffie, who you may remember from the blog, "Think of a Roulette Wheel". Anyways, Ian had a lot to add to the episode, so it's much longer than most episodes, and we had some audio issues throughout, so it required more editing than any other episode thus far.

A perfect storm of events to cause a boatload of delays.

We're getting back into the swing of things now and should have Greatfellas up in a week or so, and we've got the Patreon bonus episodes as well. Anybody that backs us for a dollar or more gets the first bonus episode. Anybody that backs for $3 or more gets every episode we do. And in case we miss the June deadline, we'll do 2 for July. Anybody wondering what the bonus episodes are, we cover alternate universes in other shows and movies. We tackled an awesome Twilight Zone episode first, and we'll be doing that Netflix movie "Parallels" soon.

And for anyone who already watched Parallels, you might find this interesting:

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

PARALLELS is great! I would have been okay with PARALLELS being called SLIDERS (2015). :-)

An E-mail I sent to Sliderscast:

Hi, guys!

The PTTS podcast was great! You guys seized up something I had never, ever, ever noticed -- the sliders are desperate not to miss the slide window -- but why? If they miss the slide window, they can just use Azure-Quinn's equipment to build another sliding device to do more random sliding! They'd have lost nothing! I never noticed this at all.

Funnily enough, a Season 4 episode, "Virtual Slide," does not make this mistake.

And great podcast on "In Dinos Veritas"! Although Arturo's use of the quote, "In vino veritas" was in "Time and Again World." Understandable if you blocked it out of your memories. I really enjoyed the interplay between the three of you and I loved how you seized on how this sweeps-selected, CG-heavy story was actually conceived as a budget-saving bottle episode!

I enjoyed hearing you guys discuss John Rhys-Davies' subtle choices in playing a man who might be crippled or die and I thought your ruminations about the paleontologist's interests likely shifting from dinosaurs to cosmology after seeing a sliding vortex. And I thought you guys also did a fine job of exploring how neither the Hunter nor the Ranger are presented as definitively good or evil. Ian has a great voice and I hope it's not his last appearance on your show.

I am going to send you guys a bit of a eulogy for Season 2 when you get to the end, but it's also going to be a bit of a eulogy for Quinn. I understand you guys remarking that Quinn is the worst character -- that's not how I see him!

I think that Quinn Mallory is one of the greatest fictional heroes of the twentieth century and I felt like "In Dinos Veritas," already a great episode, receives another surge of energy when Quinn reappears in the episode. There's an assurance and competence to Quinn when Quinn is examining all the exits in the cave and coming up with a plan to evade the dinosaur and Jerry really sells that this character is a genius.

I laughed uncontrollably at Dan's reaction to Ian describing the worm episode.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

choanata wrote:

In case anyone was wondering, this was generally used as the go-to thread to discuss the podcast, SlidersCast at www.sliderscast.com -- Man, some good memories here. Ironically enough, the message board went kablooey right around the time things went off the rails for us. I had to deal with a few illnesses, a death in the family, and during all that, work was busier than it had been all year. I was slammed.

Also working against us was the fact that we had an episode recorded, the now released episode 25. We had a special guest on that episode, the very cool Ian McDuffie, who you may remember from the blog, "Think of a Roulette Wheel". Anyways, Ian had a lot to add to the episode, so it's much longer than most episodes, and we had some audio issues throughout, so it required more editing than any other episode thus far.

A perfect storm of events to cause a boatload of delays.

We're getting back into the swing of things now and should have Greatfellas up in a week or so, and we've got the Patreon bonus episodes as well. Anybody that backs us for a dollar or more gets the first bonus episode. Anybody that backs for $3 or more gets every episode we do. And in case we miss the June deadline, we'll do 2 for July. Anybody wondering what the bonus episodes are, we cover alternate universes in other shows and movies. We tackled an awesome Twilight Zone episode first, and we'll be doing that Netflix movie "Parallels" soon.

And for anyone who already watched Parallels, you might find this interesting:

Thanks Jim. Sorry to hear about the death in the family. Glad Sliderscast is back. Great move to bring in Ian. An incredibly creative guy. A true warrior poet. Anyone have a link to the sliders book he did on that one episode?

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

My condolences.I hope things are better for you now.I hope to listen to the Podcasts at some point but have not managed to do so yet.

"It's only a matter of time. Were I in your shoes, I would spend my last earthly hours enjoying the world. Of course, if you wish, you can spend them fighting for a lost cause.... But you know that you've lost." -Kane-

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:

choanata wrote:

In case anyone was wondering, this was generally used as the go-to thread to discuss the podcast, SlidersCast at www.sliderscast.com -- Man, some good memories here. Ironically enough, the message board went kablooey right around the time things went off the rails for us. I had to deal with a few illnesses, a death in the family, and during all that, work was busier than it had been all year. I was slammed.

Also working against us was the fact that we had an episode recorded, the now released episode 25. We had a special guest on that episode, the very cool Ian McDuffie, who you may remember from the blog, "Think of a Roulette Wheel". Anyways, Ian had a lot to add to the episode, so it's much longer than most episodes, and we had some audio issues throughout, so it required more editing than any other episode thus far.

A perfect storm of events to cause a boatload of delays.

We're getting back into the swing of things now and should have Greatfellas up in a week or so, and we've got the Patreon bonus episodes as well. Anybody that backs us for a dollar or more gets the first bonus episode. Anybody that backs for $3 or more gets every episode we do. And in case we miss the June deadline, we'll do 2 for July. Anybody wondering what the bonus episodes are, we cover alternate universes in other shows and movies. We tackled an awesome Twilight Zone episode first, and we'll be doing that Netflix movie "Parallels" soon.

And for anyone who already watched Parallels, you might find this interesting:

Thanks Jim. Sorry to hear about the death in the family. Glad Sliderscast is back. Great move to bring in Ian. An incredibly creative guy. A true warrior poet. Anyone have a link to the sliders book he did on that one episode?

I don't but I did BUY it! It's pretty good, a bunch of laugh out loud moments. I recommend it!

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

I have *never* been able to get Ian's online store to work. Damn it, Ian! Go to Ian's website and E-mail him. Offer to send him the money via PayPal and he'll send you the book, as he did for me (if he has any copies left).

I've never read the comic, but I felt I owed it to Ian to support this enterprise. "Paradise Lost" -- I've blocked it out of my memory.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Episode is "Greatfellas". I'll admit, its been a while since I've watched this one... might watch it tomorrow.

I love how Dan correctly predicts that the listeners won't hear it until September.

Unfortunately, I don't have much to comment (mostly because I haven't watched it in forever). Nevertheless, it was great to hear a new episode. Very much looking forward to Young and the Relentless, which is definitely in my top 10 episodes.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Really enjoyed the "Greatfellas" podcast. Sadly, "Greatfellas" seems to be one of those episodes made when the cast and crew were a bit tired. From what I've read, the production for Season 2 was both rushed and overextended, with the crew making episodes like "Time and Again World" before they were ready to do so and making episodes like "Greatfellas" and "The Young and the Relentless" when they were burnt out. It's not a bad episode and there's a lot of strong material. But "Greatfellas" has the sliders in a plot that is so full of power players (FBI agents, the mob, con artists) and the sliders are so tiny and borderline irrelevant. They're just pushed around the story with little effect or benefit, and what they do or don't do ends up serving other characters' interests while doing nothing for them.

As Jim and Dan hilariously observe, the sliders had no need to return the mob money or do anything with it at all; it would not have affected alt-Rembrandt in any way. Which means the sliders are forced into a story that has nothing for their characters, getting involved because the author declares they must. I also enjoyed their ridicule towards Mel Torme somehow surviving an exploding car and not bothering to let Quinn know right away.

I think what I like most about the Sliderscast is that it's the equivalent of going out to a restaurant with some friends and talking SLIDERS the entire time. The Sliders Rewatch feels a bit like a professional network sports show that's decided to turn their resources to SLIDERS; Sliderscast feels like hanging out with pals.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Boy. Been awhile since our last Sliderscast, hasn't it?

I really miss the boys. I listened to the April Fool's podcast where they pretended it'd been a STARGATE podcast the whole time and I laughed uncontrollably at Dan's over-the-top performance as a STARGATE obsessive. I listened to the podcast where Dan, Jim and Ian somehow went from talking about "In Dino Veritas" to agonizing over "Paradise Lost."

I know everyone's gone nuts over Sliders Rewatch, but there's a delightful friendliness and informality to the Sliderscast that I really miss. Come back soon, guys? I also need you to plug SLIDERS REBORN some more.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

I had a weird experience today. As you may know, I was initially not a fan of Sliderscast. I was constantly raging in this thread at Jim and Dan, shrieking at them that the dead air and content free passages and pointless digressions were an agonizing bore and pleaded them to, in the name of all that is holy, edit out all this nonsense before uploading the MP3.

But I listened to the Pilot podcasts from them today -- and absolutely none of that bothered me. I really enjoyed it. The dead-air/digressions/pointless passages didn't register to me at all. What's changed?

What's changed is that I kept listening and became extremely familiar with our two podcasters. I now know Jim and Dan so well that I enjoy listening to them talk nonsense. It was unbearable when I wasn't invested in them as people; now I know and care about them and take pleasure in their conversational meanderings. And so, I enjoy their earlier podcasts as much as I enjoy their latter output; I'm listening for Jim and Dan as much as I'm listening for SLIDERS content.

I'm going to listen to the rest of the Season 1 podcasts and see how they feel now.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

They have recorded two new episodes, but there was an equipment failure and the sound is out of sync. They're trying to fix it as they edit their two tracks together.

I'm re-listening to the podcasts and really loving them. There's a hilarious screwup in the earlier episodes of Sliderscast where Jim keeps hesitating to introduce the Sliderscast, almost saying "Lanterncast." There's a joke where Dan and Jim pretend to have lost track of which episode they're reviewing due to the confused FOX running order -- on the original listen, this joke enraged me and I snarled at the boys for wasting my time like this. But now that I know them better, I laughed uncontrollably.

"The Weaker Sex" also has a hilarious moment where Dan declares, near the end of the podcast, that he did a great job with the episode summary at the beginning. Jim is about to agree and the protests -- *Jim* did the recap this week, not Dan. Dan replies by standing with his comments.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Just listened to Young and the Relentless.

Glad to hear that they're back! Good review- 2 different views on the episode. I do agree that the logistics of the world are far fetched and not really possible by any means, but other than that I do like the concept and enjoy this episode a lot. It also has one of my favorite quotes of the series where Arturo tells a young man who tell him it's past his bedtime to "hurry home and cuddle up with Teddy". For some reason, that line always makes me laugh. There's a lot going on in this episode and it's a fun episode.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Oh, hey, this podcast still exists! Haha!

A terrific podcast as always, but one thing jumped out at me -- when Mr. Stargate declares his favourite scenes involved Wade and Quinn happily signing over their doubles' wealth to Razor Gillette -- pointing out that the sliders can do whatever they like because once they leave this world, they're never coming back.

More than anyone, Mr. Stargate has truly captured what makes SLIDERS special with this off-the-cuff observation. The sliders operate on a storytelling engine that is fundamentally about the characters sliding into other people's stories and breaking the narrative flow and creating a collapse. And this leads to the sliders revealing the power of sliding. Sliding gives them the ability to cheat the narrative, to slip between the rules of the genres they encounter, to shift the restrictions of stories without breaking or damaging them, and in doing so, they can make the stories stronger.

Mr. Stargate is the one of the few people to truly understand SLIDERS and what's astonishing and delightful is that he doesn't even like the show that much seems to have hit upon this entirely by accident.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

So, what happened here?

While I miss Jim and Dan, I have to confess that the Rewatch Podcast has pretty much made Sliderscast extraneous at this point -- not because Slidercast wasn't or wouldn't be enjoyable, but because Rewatch Podcast was consistently present and made its way through all 88 episodes at a continued and regular pace. In contrast, Sliderscast has seemingly vanished and the fact that Rewatch Podcast started so much later and managed to review "The Seer" AND "Slide Effects" while Sliderscast hasn't even gotten into Season 3 is just... kind of sad. I mean, they were friendly competitors, but there's no competition now. Sliderscast is a complete and total non-entity.

And yet -- it's not necessarily a bad thing in that I have often wished SLIDERS had ended with Season 2 rather than getting a long, drawn out, painful demise. Considering Dan Kurtzke's agony in many Season 2 episodes alone, maybe it's for the best that he'll never get into late Season 3.

I hope they come back someday, but if they don't... is the SLIDERS fan community poorer without Sliderscast? Maybe it would be except that the void Sliderscast left was filled by the Rewatch Podcast. The one thing Rewatch Podcast doesn't do, however, is the casual sense of two friends goofing about over SLIDERS -- instead, you get the sense that Tom and Cory treat podcasting like a job whereas Dan and Jim are just chatting and the fact that they record their conversation is incidental. I do miss that.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

I loved SlidersCast, and actually check their site just about every day hoping a new episode is up. I've tried the Rewatch Podcast and just couldn't get it or as much as SlidersCast. I was really looking forward to their takes on seasons 3-5. I've posted on their fb page about new episodes a bunch of months ago, was told they'd be coming, but nothing yet.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

I've been listening to old stuff lately. The casual nature is good contrast to what we get from Rewatch Podcast, so depending on what you're in the mood for you have both styles to choose from.

I really enjoyed Aaron and Ian's guest appearances as well, plus episode 14.1 or whatever it was in which Ib did a tremendous breakdown of one of the episodes that opened my eyes to things I never was aware of. It just took everything deeper.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Hi guys! Thank you for all the kind words. Yeah, the editing issues on the last few episodes kind of broke me. It was just something I dreaded having to fix. And with the Rewatch podcast humming along, there was a lot less pressure to continue. I knew you would all have something to listen to in our absence. Throw in the fact that Dan got a new job working nights, so things were looking dim for Sliderscast.

But after a little break from podcasting, I started getting the itch again. So I started up a toy news podcast with another friend of Dan and me. And I upgraded my recording software. And I think I got a little better at podcasting, and definitely got better at editing. And after a while I talked to Dan about starting to record again. So we've been working on scheduling...and last night we recorded Double Cross! It should go up before the weekend is through, if not sooner. It's one of my favorite episodes, and was so much fun recording. We have a new guest on who specially requested to cover this episode with us, and he's a huge Sliders fan too. So all in all, we probably can't manage a weekly release schedule, but maybe monthly or semi-weekly. It's always been my goal to finish the whole series, but I'm only doing that with Dan as my co-host, so if it takes a while, so be it.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

choanata wrote:

Hi guys! Thank you for all the kind words. Yeah, the editing issues on the last few episodes kind of broke me. It was just something I dreaded having to fix. And with the Rewatch podcast humming along, there was a lot less pressure to continue. I knew you would all have something to listen to in our absence. Throw in the fact that Dan got a new job working nights, so things were looking dim for Sliderscast.

But after a little break from podcasting, I started getting the itch again. So I started up a toy news podcast with another friend of Dan and me. And I upgraded my recording software. And I think I got a little better at podcasting, and definitely got better at editing. And after a while I talked to Dan about starting to record again. So we've been working on scheduling...and last night we recorded Double Cross! It should go up before the weekend is through, if not sooner. It's one of my favorite episodes, and was so much fun recording. We have a new guest on who specially requested to cover this episode with us, and he's a huge Sliders fan too. So all in all, we probably can't manage a weekly release schedule, but maybe monthly or semi-weekly. It's always been my goal to finish the whole series, but I'm only doing that with Dan as my co-host, so if it takes a while, so be it.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Well, it was very pleasant to hear Jim and Dan back together again and their guest-star added a reasonable third voice to discussing "Double Cross," inexplicable digressions into "The Guardian" aside. As usual, Jim brought a thoughtful, measured and gently sardonic presence to the proceedings while Mr. Stargate relentless ragged on SLIDERS for the crime of not being some other television show entirely.

At one point, Mr. Stargate rants that "Double Cross" uses "throwaway lines of dialogue" to establish the depletion of natural resources as though dialogue written with some naturalism and subtlety to establish the setting is inappropriate and a sign of bad writing due to some arbitrary and completely random set of standards that only Mr. Stargate can apply or appreciate.

Jim and Ian correctly point out that the lack of natural resources and the electricity rationing is actually key to the plot, and even to set up the climax where Logan and her goons can't get into the hotel. However, Mr. Stargate makes up for this with an astute observation that Logan could easily be Evil Scientist #2 and her being Quinn's double doesn't really factor into the story as well as it could or should. If not for this, I would seriously urge Mr. Stargate to reconsider his aptitude and ability to analyze and discuss television on any sensible level.

Overall, it's very nice to have Sliderscast back and to hear them discussing the show again, but due to the massive time gap between this podcast and the last, they have unfortunately forgotten how Season 2 ended. As a result, they are incapable of discussing the massive gulf in style, filming, writing, acting and location that they would see if comparing "The Young and the Relentless" with "Double Cross." Perhaps I shall provide them with yet another lengthy voicemail on the subject.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Enjoyed the new episode! Was great to hear them at it again. Perfectly timed for me, was taking a long flight, so I downloaded it beforehand and listened on the flight. I agreed a lot more wth Jim on this episode. Although they never really go into why the world was low on resources, it certainly has that feel that this is a world struggling without them, but making the best of it. I get the impression they did have a good amount of resources at some point- otherwise things like planes and cars would've never been invented in the first place.

Can't wait to hear more! This'll be some entertaining SlidersCast episodes when the crazier Sliders episodes arrive for review!

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Just finished listening to it. Unfortunately, Rules Of the Game is one of my least favorite episodes (it may even be 3rd least favorite after Requiem and Roads Taken). All their talk about how bad the episode is I completely agree with (I don't think this is an episode anyone here is too fond of). It's not even bad in a way that it's fun to bash (I'm really looking forward to them getting to some others since it'll be entertaining), it's just bad. I watched the episode in preparation last week (this is one that I rarely watch). Looking forward to the next few, there's a lot of good entertainment potential for the SlidersCast in season 3.

Also, they talk about the packaging for the newest DVD release (the one where the episodes are in the right order). It sounds like it's an awful package. Sliders has always had some pretty bad luck with DVD packaging, but this sounds like it may be the worst.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

I'll leave it up to SlidersCast to post it -- honestly, it doesn't matter. What's really important is that Jim take good care of himself and regain his health, and if in the course of long term chronic illness, a plug is forgotten or a voicemail is lost, well, it's hardly life or death.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

ireactions wrote:

I'll leave it up to SlidersCast to post it -- honestly, it doesn't matter. What's really important is that Jim take good care of himself and regain his health, and if in the course of long term chronic illness, a plug is forgotten or a voicemail is lost, well, it's hardly life or death.

Oh, I totally agree! I'm guessing he probably forgot since it was back in October. I didn't remember until after I first posted and then just decided to scroll above a bit to see what the last posts were about and saw it.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

Indeed guys, we totally forgot about pretty much everything. I hadn't checked emails in a while, and I kept meaning to post that mini ep and forgot. We'll do the plug on the next episode, and probably mention to keep an eye out for the voicemail, so people know what to expect.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

New episode is up. “Dead Man Sliding”. Another solid podcast episode. The Sliders episode is pretty decent. Quinn’s double is great, JOC did a great job and it is probably one of his best double performances, especially with that accent. Possibly his best.

Re: SlidersCast: Rewatching the show one podcast at a time

I think it would be best if SLIDERSCAST never returned. Look, I love Jim Ford. He gave me the idea for introducing Quinn Mallory's daughter to SLIDERS REBORN. He plugged my "Slide Effects" script. He plugged SLIDERS REBORN in a special message recorded for the twentieth anniversary and argued that it's not technically a non-canon story since all fanfic is canonical in SLIDERS. And Dan Kurtzke has his moments ("Tuesday Floozeday!") and they had Annie Fish guest-star on the podcast.

But let's look at their results: they don't adhere to any kind of schedule, regularly giving the impression that SLIDERSCAST has been abandoned. Dan is clearly not engaged with SLIDERS at all, spending every episode bringing up the most asinine complaints (he protests that the sliders just shouldn't get involved in any plots and hide out in a bunker or something). Jim is solid, but this is a podcasting pair who failed to discuss the MASSIVE visual differences between "As Time Goes By" and "Double Cross," who completely missed the huge production changes and characterization alterations between "Luck of the Draw" and "Into the Mystic."

Why are Jim and Dan reviewing episodes of SLIDERS when they can't seem to invest in the viewing experience of SLIDERS enough to grasp the obvious and glaring? What is the point of a SLIDERS podcast that analyzes SLIDERS in such a clumsy, incapable, incompetent fashion?

Jim and Dan should move on. Dan clearly wants to do a STARGATE podcast, Jim would clearly enjoy that too -- so I suggest that they leave SLIDERSCAST behind (I mean, they have already) and do their STARGATECAST. That'll be fine. I would even start watching STARGATE just to enjoy their STARGATE podcast. It's not that Jim and Dan are bad podcasters; they're just bad SLIDERS podcasters and they would be great if tackling content for which they *both* had passion and interest. Only one person in SLIDERSCAST is actually interested in SLIDERS.